Report | Argyle Women 1 Cardiff City 2
Argyle 1
Endacott 34
Cardiff City 2
Horrell 40, 73
Argyle Women’s final game of the year ended in heartbreak, with Cardiff City coming from behind to win at Coach Road, Newton Abbot.
Argyle took the lead via Mia Endacott just after the half-hour mark, with City equalising with a Grace Horrell strike. The Greens ended the half very positively, and began the second period in the same vein, but a virtuoso performance by visiting goalkeeper Laura O’Sullivan kept Argyle at bay.
Horrell’s second, during a strong spell for Cardiff in the second half, gave City a lead they never relinquished. Argyle threw everything they had forward in the second period, but found O’Sullivan impassable.
The only nominal change to the starting line-up was the inclusion of Lucy Hack in central defence, for injured skipper Panagiota Papaioannou. Organisationally, things were a little different, as Imy Crawford took the captain’s armband, and Charlotte Whitmore, who started the previous game on the flank and during the game was switched infield, once again lined up centrally.
The ninth minute brought the first good chance of the game. Argyle’s football, quickly from back to front, was slick, with Ellie Sara and Rebecca Dandridge combining to release Whitmore, one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but O’Sullivan stood tall and thwarted the attempt.
There was a long stoppage before the midway point in the half, for Cardiff defender Ebony Dover, who went down with a leg injury. The former Argyle player was carried from the field, and we wish her well.
As the half wore on, Cardiff began to probe, with a direct free-kick striking the wall, before a ball through released Horrell. As at the other end with Whitmore, a goal looked on, but Jasmine Read stood her ground and maintained parity.
Argyle then took the lead, after a period of pressure. Several players were involved in a patient build-up on the right flank, and when the ball reached Endacott just inside the area, she flighted a beautifully controlled finish over O’Sullivan to put the Greens in front.
Cardiff, though, equalised before the break, with Horrell again getting in behind, in the left channel, and this time slotting home.
The score at the break was 1-1, but between Cardiff’s goal and the half-time whistle, Argyle piled on the pressure.
Twice, Sara twisted defenders inside and out, before taking shots which O’Sullivan saved, and Dandridge tried an effort from range which drifted wide. Then, in the closing 30 seconds of the half, Imy Crawford’s 25-yarder smashed off the crossbar, Jemma Rose followed up with a blast across the centre which was charged down, and the loose ball fell to Katie Dickson, whose effort was prevented at the near post.
The momentum carried into the second period, as Argyle raced out of the blocks. Sara had two more efforts on target but saved, before Dandridge’s near-post effort was pushed round by the overworked O’Sullivan.
Cardiff sent a reminder that they were still very in the game when substitute Amy Long hit a 20-yarder which Read saved really well away to her left.
This chance seemed to invigorate the Dragons, who began to come into the game once more. Although generally creating precious few actual chances, it was the visitors who were on top for the middle part of the second period, with Argyle standing firm and reducing Cardiff to peripheral chances from set-pieces, which were dealt with.
However, the pressure told, and after Read had made a good stop from one shot from an angle, Horrell pounced on the rebound and City were in front.
Argyle immediately laid siege to the Cardiff goal looking for a precious goal but, try as they might, the Greens could not find a goal to level it up. Substitute Fern Orchard, a last-minute hero the week before, broke the offside trap and had her effort palmed onto the post by the heroic O’Sullivan, and from the corner a scramble in the six-yard area somehow did not end with the ball being bundled over the line.
With time ticking away, Dandridge looked to have done it with a curling effort which seemed destined for the corner, but O’Sullivan pulled out her best save from a catalogue of them, diving away to her left and fingertipping it away.
Clearly injured from her exertions, O’Sullivan pulled out one last outstanding stop, from Orchard’s drive deep into stoppage time, and moments later the whistle blew.
The win brings Cardiff level on points with Argyle, and above the Pilgrims on goal difference. This was Argyle’s last game of 2023. They will return to action on Sunday, 7 January, against Chatham, at Coach Road, Newton Abbot.
Argyle: 1 Jasmine Read, 2 Katie Dickson, 3 Rosie McDonnell, 4 Jemma Rose, 6 Lucy Hack, 7 Charlotte Whitmore, (20 Fern Orchard, 81), 8 Imy Crawford (capt), 9 Ellie Sara (11 Jade Berrow, 67), 10 Rebecca Dandridge, 18 Taya Pomfret, 29 Mia Endacott. Substitutes: 42 Lily Felgate (gk), 14 Tamsin Medd-Gill.
Cardiff City: 1 Laura O’Sullivan, 2 Libby Piggott, 4 Emily Poole, 7 Ellie Sargent, 8 Chloe Lloyd (capt), 11 Jessie Taylor, 14 Grace Horrell, 18 Caitlin Williams, 19 Thierry-Jo Gauvain, 21 Ruby Scahill (3 Tia Asker, 90), 28 Ebony Dover (22 Amy Long, 23). Substitutes: 6 Carys Bufton, 24 Nia Rees, Hannah Williams-Mills.
